Tag: Working Pour

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Culture Food & Drink

Women gather to set a new vision for Virginia’s wine industry

Virginia Women in Wine, a new organization of wine professionals led by Nancy Bauer, finds answers through community. VWW is dedicated to creating the change, support, and resources necessary for women in the Virginia wine industry to thrive. Supplied photo.

The journey to establish Virginia Women in Wine began five years ago with a series of informal get-togethers spearheaded by food and travel writer Nancy Bauer. The gatherings of women who shared a passion for Virginia’s wine industry but found themselves unfamiliar with, or disconnected from, one another grew, and Bauer remembers the moment when the potential for something greater became clear to her. It was during discussions about challenges facing the industry that it dawned on her that “all the answers were in the room.” 

The idea that their informal network should be formalized into a nonprofit entity soon emerged. “It became kind of a running joke,” Bauer says. “Shannon [Horton of Horton Vineyards] would always yell across the room, ‘Nancy, you really need to turn this into a 501(c)(3),’ and I’d yell back, ‘Shannon, you have fun with that.’”

On August 6, Virginia Women in Wine, led by Bauer as the organization’s first president, attracted more than 160 attendees for its launch at Eastwood Farm Winery. The event underscores the excitement and support for empowering women in Virginia’s growing wine industry through innovative media and marketing strategies, community-building, networking, leadership development, and promoting career advancement and equity.

Ultimately, a lunch meeting with Horton and Megan Hereford, co-owner of Stuart, Virginia-based Daring Wine & Cider Co., convinced Bauer to move forward. She drafted a grant proposal for the Virginia Wine Board. The proposal was not funded, but it did spark the formation of a dedicated group of women. 

“I invited all the women who had ever been to one of our dinners or showed any interest in the idea to put their names on the proposal—50 women signed,” Bauer recalls. This list became the foundation of the organization’s inaugural board, which includes 14 members supported by an additional nine committee members and volunteers.

Bauer estimates that 6,000 or more women are employed in the Virginia wine industry and recognizes that they face some unique challenges. As VWW interviewed individuals to develop an upcoming white paper, issues such as pay inequity, lack of respect, and equipment not designed for women emerged. Additionally, child-care challenges are significant, especially during back to school time, which coincides with the start of grape harvest.

Stephanie Pence, co-owner of Brix & Columns Vineyard in McGaheysville, highlights some of these unique challenges, noting that physical size and strength can sometimes require creative workarounds. She says there is often a reaction of surprise when she’s seen driving her tractor, sometimes in a dress, or arriving to unload pallets from a truck. “I’ve received comments like, ‘I thought you were getting your husband to unload this,’” she recalls. For Pence, such moments underscore the importance of community among women in the industry, for bonding and for problem-solving.

This sentiment is echoed by Seidah Armstrong, owner of Unionville’s Sweet Vines Farm Winery, who says, “I love the fact that VWW is essentially saying, ‘Hey, we see you and we support you!’” She notes that there are often isolated parts of the profession where collaboration is limited. VWW can reduce these workplace silos to foster more connection and resources. 

“As a former K-12 administrator, I see continuing education opportunities as a huge challenge for women in the industry,” says Armstrong. “VWW will work to make educational opportunities available for women as they navigate key Virginia-specific issues such as the impact of introducing new varietals or working on creative ways to grow tourism and clientele.”

Athena Eastwood, owner of Eastwood Farm and Winery, emphasizes the significance of representation at all levels, including leadership. “I think it’s important for people to be able to look out and see faces like theirs doing the things they dream of doing,” says Eastwood. “It makes it easier to imagine that you can do it too. When you are a woman just getting started, whether you are working in the cellar or serving on a board for the first time, having another woman in the room or at the table with you can be invaluable.”

Reflecting on the importance of formally organizing as a group, Bauer notes, “This board has reminded me how much more you can get done when you work together.” Admitting that she is “smitten” with the new challenge, she finds the prospect that Virginia Women in Wine might outlast her “pretty exciting.”

For more information or to become a member, visit virginiawomeninwine.com.

Categories
Culture

Rockin’ stout

Locally brewed stouts and porters offer an Irish goodbye to traditional pints. Getty Images.

Beer drinkers are weaning themselves off of so many unfortunate St. Patrick’s Day traditions. Green beer? Gone. Drinking enough to shame their Irish forebears by the end of the night? Well, mostly gone.

The next step? Reaching for a locally made, artisanal stout or porter, rather than that well-known macro sludge. No, we’re not talking 12 percent ABV pastry stouts crammed with everything from the supermarket candy aisle. And we’re not talking 14 percent barrel-aged behemoths. We’re talking mostly dry, non-adjuncted, reasonably low-alcohol beer you can crush without much concern.

“[Dry stout] is a simple beer—one of the simplest,” said Kevin McElroy, co-founder and head brewer at Random Row Brewing Co. “I think for me, it is that kind of roasty flavor that comes along with it. Personally, I am a low ABV beer drinker. [Dry stouts] have so much flavor, but they don’t have that heavy alcohol content. It’s the combination of drinkbalility and taste.”

Here’s a look at seven local stouts and porters to replace your Guinness this St. Paddy’s Day.

Random Row Brewing Co.

Sublimation Stout, 4.9% ABV

Random Row’s Sublimation is likely the one true dry Irish stout you’ll find on C’ville taps this March. McElroy says it’s made with but a few humble ingredients: British pale malt, roasted barley, flaked barley, East Kent Golding hops, and British ale yeast. The brew’s been as low as 4.5 percent ABV in some batches and featured other Euro-staple hops like Perle, but it always has a roasty, unsweetened flavor profile typical of the dry Irish.

Reason Beer

Strange Currencies, 5.7% ABV

Blurring the lines between styles, Reason’s Strange Currencies porter offers the roasted coffee, chocolate, and caramel flavors stout lovers crave. But it also brings a hoppy edge you don’t find in traditional Irish stouts. Legend has it Reason’s head brewer, Mark Fulton, originally brewed Strange Currencies in honor of his wife and named it after the REM song that soundtracked their first wedding night dance. These beers, you will be mine.

Champion Brewing
Company

Blacklight Tapestry, 5% ABV

Champion Brewing Company has made a number of stouts over the years that put a pint of Gat to shame. So, while this year fans’ll have to settle for a robust porter, they know they’re in capable hands. Black Light Tapestry brings chocolate, coffee, and chicory flavors to a creamy body, as well as a subtle hop tinge at 25 IBUs. Dark beer lovers have praised the brew, which has been on tap at Champion since February 5, for its dark-roast, nearly burnt aesthetic.

Seven Arrows

Sundog Milkstout, 5.5% ABV

Not all the great local Guinness substitutes are purely dry. Seven Arrows’s Sundog Milkstout features the addition of non-fermentable lactose sugar, making the resulting brew slightly sweet. The lactose also gives the beer its creamy mouthfeel, which the brewers say manifests in a “tight, thick head like whipped cream.” But Sundog’s flavors are in line with our other macro-alternatives—they brim with chocolate and coffee, along with a slight hoppiness and roast bitterness.

Decipher Brewing

Scytale Stout, 5.7% ABV

Decipher Brewing’s Scytale Stout is a unique alternative to the St. Paddy’s Day fare on our list, as it features oatmeal and is on the nanobrewery’s nitro line. Both attributes are designed to give the ale a creamy mouthfeel—the oats during the boil and the gas erupting into tight bubbles as the dark liquid hits the glass.

Rockfish Brewing
Company

Baltic Porter, 7.2% ABV

So what the heck is a Baltic porter? It’s a lager, meaning it’s fermented differently from other porters, which are ales. According to the Beer Judge Certification Program, it’s a style categorized with other porters primarily due to its malt character. BJCP, the gold standard for beer style definitions, says Baltic porters might have hints of “caramel, toffee, nutty to deep toast, and/or licorice notes…Some darker malt character that is deep chocolate, coffee or molasses but never burnt.” Baltic porters also feature higher alcohol contents than other porters, but they fall short of imperial or barrel-aged stouts, making them a fair sub for dry stouts.

For one example of the style, pull up to a pint of Rockfish Brewing Company’s Baltic Porter. The brewery’s take is mostly dry, pops with roasted coffee and chocolate, and comes in at a reasonable 7.2 percent ABV.

Devils Backbone Brewing Company

Danzig, 8% ABV

Devils Backbone Brewing Company offers a sturdy Baltic porter in Danzig, a beer that’s won numerous awards at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup. “Baltic porters bring aspects of strong lagers and English porters together,” says Jason Oliver, Devils Backbone’s head brewer. “We have always brewed it to be a true-to-style Baltic porter.”

At nearly twice the alcohol of a Guiness, revelers will want to take their time savoring Danzig’s flavor profile, which delivers the coffee and chocolate notes typical of a porter. “It’s kind of a hybrid,” Oliver says. “Beer styles are a bit of an invention to classify things. They serve a purpose, but they can’t cover all the bases.”

Categories
Living

Oregon wine’s enduring relationship with Virginia

Bill Curtis of Tastings has long been a champion of Oregon wines, in particular the wines made by Michael Etzel of Beaux Frères winery. Photo by Amy Jackson

In most wine shops and restaurants in Virginia, you’ll find an excellent Oregon wine selection—one that locals may take for granted. But Virginia’s high-quality Oregon wine niche is no accident, it’s driven by a core group of passionate people.

Though Oregon’s pre-Prohibition wine history dates back to the 1840s, today’s winemakers put down roots in the 1960s. In 1985, Beth and Rob Crittenden worked a harvest in Oregon and got to know many of the winemakers long before the state’s wine renaissance dazzled the rest of the country—and they loved the Northwest wines their friends grew and produced.

Shortly after the couple moved to Virginia to be closer to family, they founded Roanoke Valley Wine Company in 1994. “When we first moved here,” says Beth, “there were just a handful of Northwest wines” available in Virginia. The Crittendens aimed to fix that. They introduced Virginia to the Oregon wines of Brick House and Eyrie, and carried the wines of Cameron Winery and Patricia Green from their first vintages.

“We were the first distributor in the United States to offer Oregon wines as a central focus,” says Rob. “Many wines were available in Virginia years and years before they were available in larger markets. For that reason, Virginians have had, and still have, access to the best of Oregon.”

That access was eagerly accepted by the local wine community. “When we first introduced Oregon wines in Virginia, only a few potential customers even knew that Oregon made wine,” says Rob. “Luckily for us, they were open-minded. …Early adopters included Bill Curtis at Tastings, Robert Harllee at Market Street [Wineshop] and Elaine Futhey at the C&O.”

Because most Oregon wineries are small, typically family operations, “Oregon producers have always embraced direct relationship-based marketing of their wines,” says Brian O’Donnell, winemaker at Belle Pente Vineyard & Winery.

Dry-farm advocate (no use of irrigation) John Paul, owner of Cameron Winery and planter of the inimitable Clos Electrique vineyard, says, “When we have time, we personally go on the road to sell our own products. I have to believe that the authenticity of that approach is not lost on the consumers here or elsewhere.”

The popularity of Oregon wines in Virginia “is because of people like Beth and Rob and their amazing team,” says Rob Stuart of R. Stuart & Co. “They are all about small, family producers living real lives. There is such a disconnect these days with large corporate conglomerate producers and the consumer. RVWC is giving the Virginia market a reconnect to what we all seem to crave, a personal connection between the producers and the consumers.”

There is a growing eagerness to embrace the high quality wines of Oregon that catches its winemakers off guard. “Mainly you will find me on a tractor, so, imagine my surprise, along with my distributor, when a wine director in D.C. ushered us back during dinner service to taste my wines,” says Jim Prosser of J.K. Carriere Wines based in Newberg. “The deer on my hill don’t show a deference, [but I] guess [the reception of Oregon wines is] different on the East Coast.”

Because light red wines go so well with a diversity of foods, pinot noir has become the go-to grape in many dining situations. “Since Oregon pinot noir is compatible with so many different types of foods, it is a natural choice for this more casual, small-plate-oriented method of dining,” says O’Donnell. “Heavier red wines are far less versatile at the table. That is why you find pinot noir—and especially Willamette Valley pinot noir—gaining in popularity in America’s top restaurants.”

Prosser echoes this notion. “Wines of energy lift themselves out of the glass and represent; they offer moments of epiphany,” he says. “Oregon wines have energy and that will bode well for their intersection with food, wherever, however you find it.”

Chris Dunbar of The Alley Light in downtown Charlottesville nods to the Oregon wines on his wine list. Currently, “we serve the Omero Cellars pinot noir by the glass, and have Beaux Frères, Ken Wright and Domaine Serene by the bottle. Oregon’s cool climate produces a similar taste profile to Burgundy—Robin’s favorite wine region—which always pairs well with food,” says Dunbar, referring to the restaurant’s chef and co-owner Robin McDaniel. “Conversely,” he says, “I love the under-appreciated Alsatian varietals—pinot blanc, pinot gris and riesling” from Oregon.

“Oregon wines are some of our most popular,” says Farrell Vangelopoulos at The Ivy Inn. “With our all-American wine list, Oregon is a natural fit. The pinot noirs are so elegant and expressive.”

At Market Street Wine, co-owner Thadd McQuade says, “Oregon has long been a home to idiosyncratic free-thinkers. Wineries like Biggio Hamina and Illahe have irrefutable personality, aromatic complexity and are standard-bearers of the natural, non-interventionist winemaking that we value and support.”

Categories
Living

Hardywood’s brewers offer taste of creativity

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery lead brewer Kevin Storm is especially proud of their new IPA, Tropication. “We did it unfiltered, just like super raw, mega-hopped IPA. Almost a mimosa-like IPA,” he says. Photo by Eze Amos

Richmond-based Hardywood Park Craft Brewery has opened a satellite tasting room and brewery on West Main Street, becoming the fifth brewery within Charlottesville city limits. At its grand opening last Saturday, 15 beers were on tap. The unseasonably warm afternoon brought out such a large crowd that five taps were off the list by 2pm. The taproom serves as a brewers’ playground and research center, in which varying small batches are brewed and the most popular recipes will be considered for wider production.

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery held its grand opening for the Charlottesville taproom Saturday, February 18.
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery held its grand opening for the Charlottesville taproom Saturday, February 18. Photo by Eze Amos

Head brewer Kevin Storm is especially proud of their new IPA, Tropication. He designed Tropication to deliberately depart from the wave of hop-heavy IPAs that represent the lion’s share of the craft beer market.

“I beat up IPAs,” Storm says. “I drank them until my palate was just roasted. …I wanted to make something that I knew I would appreciate. Tropication, we did all local hops. …You’ve got massive amounts of late-addition hops, and it’s dry-hopped with mosaic and nelson sauvin.”

Those mosaic and nelson sauvin hops bear most of the responsibility for turning the beer in my hand into something that tasted like it had come out of a juicer. Nelson sauvin is a new hop variety from New Zealand, so-named for a flavor profile similar to a sauvignon blanc grape.

Hardywood’s gingerbread stout nails the often-elusive sweet spot between making a flavored stout that is too gimmicky for its own good and something that one would actually want to drink an entire pint of. The ginger is mild, letting the round notes of the malt and hops speak for themselves. The beer is good on its own, but I found myself fantasizing about pouring it over ice cream.

“GBS has ginger, cinnamon, honey, all local to Richmond,” Storm says. “We get this gorgeous baby ginger every year. We have two [Richmond] farmers who supply us with that.”

The gingerbread stout also serves as a basis for other small batches of specialty beers. A variation on GBS with coffee added was aptly titled Kentucky Christmas morning (it was among the beers that sold out on Saturday and it may not be made again anytime soon).

Both the Gingerbread Stout and Virgina Pale Ale serve as a basis for variations of small-batch specialty beers, such as a mango-infused VIPA or the coffee-infused Kentucky Christmas stout. Photo by Eze Amos
Both the Gingerbread Stout and Virgina Pale Ale serve as a basis for variations of small-batch specialty beers, such as a mango-infused VIPA or the coffee-infused Kentucky Christmas stout. Photo by Eze Amos

A flagship of Hardywood’s draft lineup is its Virginia Pale Ale, or VIPA. But don’t let the name fool you. While the ingredients are largely sourced from within the state, this beer is definitely a pale ale rather than an IPA. Super smooth and perfect for a warm spring day; less hoppy and bitter than an IPA. This is an ale that IPA-lovers and lager drinkers may be able to agree on.

VIPA’s hops are Virginia grown, as is the two-row barley from Heathsville, which was malted in Sperryville.

Like the gingerbread stout, Hardywood’s brewers like to play with VIPA and add other ingredients for one-off batches. A mango-infused variety was on tap for opening day, as was a pineapple edition. Both will certainly be gone by the time this article is published but watch for other creative uses of VIPA’s sparse canvas of flavor profile.

Anna Warneke, a brewer from Germany completing a three-month internship, says she was hesitant at first to experiment with unique ingredients, because of the strict German beer purity laws. Photo by Eze Amos
Anna Warneke, a brewer from Germany completing a three-month internship, says she was hesitant at first to experiment with unique ingredients, because of the strict German beer purity laws. Photo by Eze Amos

Maker’s mark

Anna Warneke, a young brewer visiting from Germany for a three-month internship, has been working with Kevin Storm and learning about America’s craft beer culture, which is very different from the staunch traditionalist approach to making beer in her country. For more than 500 years, Germany has had a body of law collectively referred to as the Reinheitsgebot, or beer purity law. It effectively blocks German brewers from using unusual ingredients.

“I’m really excited to try stuff beyond the purity law,” Warneke says. “It was really weird for me in the beginning, putting sugar in a kettle. I can see it’s more creative. More fun.”

“You should have seen her face the first time we used rice hulls,” Storm says.

“Or when I had to put raspberry puree in a tank,” Warneke says. “I’m like, really? …I come from a traditional pils brewery built in the 1800s, and we have our recipe and we aren’t creative at all.”

Warneke was given the opportunity to design a beer of her own for Hardywood.

“I wanted my first beer to be a German style, but I don’t want to go with a pils or whatever, because you’ve all had it,” Warneke says. “We did a pilot batch, a weizenbock. Basically a weizen beer (brewed using malted wheat as well as barley) but made as a bock.”

The weizenbock is still awaiting tapping and a first tasting.